VNL

Increasing rural teledensity 25 Mar, 2008

“Mobile communication is the road ahead for India,” said N Parameswaran at the 16th Convergence India 2008 Exhibition and Conference.

Parameswaran is TRAI’s principal advisor, and chaired the session “Developing Mobile
Communications in Rural Areas - Role of Stakeholders”.

He continued to discuss teledensity and the government’s ambitions;

“Alhough teledensity in the country has reached over 25 per cent, the spread isn’t even. Rural teledensity is still hovering around 8 per cent. The government’s target of 25 per cent per cent rural density will require collective efforts from both the government and the industry.”

Alcatel-Lucent’s A Sethuraman commented that “Lack of infrastructure is one of the major obstacles in connecting rural India.”

Discussing the challenges faced in connecting the huge potential but under-served markets of rural India, he added;

“We need to look at various options for meeting the information requirements of rural India. Affordable communication is where the answer lies.”

We couldn’t agree more. And fortunately, both suitable infrastructure and a required business model is now available.

VNL’s Microtelecom Business Model and WorldGSM™ technology is a viable way for operators to connect the next billion users.